Happy day: the JUNEBUGEP by Friendship Commanders is out today! We're very proud to be able to share it with you all and hope you enjoy it. It was made in the spirit of collaboration and community, and as such, will partially benefit the ACLU. For this record, we collaborated with Jesse Michaels (Operation Ivy, Classics of Love), covered a song by Nashville's own Iodine, called in a German translation, and wrote a song for some friends of ours. It's a diverse and different body of work for us.

And, we made a video for one of the songs on the EP, "Berlin." It was our first experience with opening up our visual medium to a large group of people in our local community. We very much enjoyed the process and are excited to share the final product with you today. Appreciation to Harvey Milk and Cleve Jones; additional appreciation to Gilbert Baker.

Our updated tour dates are listed below, and more will be added to the June run, so be sure to check back. Can't wait to see you all!

My band Friendship Commanders has a new EP on the way and you can pre-order it today! JUNEBUG will be released on April 15th, Record Store Day, and will only be available on 7" vinyl with digital download. You'll be able to get it at Grimey's in Nashville, at our live shows, and online. Pre-ordered records will ship on Monday, April 18th. One song from the EP will be yours as soon as you pre-order your copy. We hope you enjoy it!

This record is meaningful to us because each song was inspired by or contributed to by people outside of our band. "Fighting Shape" was inspired by our comrades in BELLS≥ and is dedicated to them. "Tragedy Chaser" was co-written by Jesse Michaels (Operation Ivy, Classics of Love). "Berlin" features a German translation by N. A. Huebsch Jr., and "Swan Dive" was written by Jay Joyce and originally performed by his band, Iodine. In the spirit of community and collaboration, one dollar of every copy sold will be given to the ACLU.

Some incomplete tour dates are listed below. Our show in Nashville on March 24th will be the last local one for a while. We look forward to playing with friends in town and then touring throughout the rest of the year.

Finally, I'm is curating and releasing a compilation called Resolution of Happiness this year on my label, Trimming The Shield. The call for original music submissions is open now and will close on April 23rd. If you'd like to know more about the project, read about it here. All proceeds will go to Lambda Legal.

I'm going to curate a compilation called "Resolition of Happiness, a Radical Resistance Compilation." It will be released on my label, Trimming the Shield Records. The proceeds will benefit Lambda Legal, an incredible legal resource for the LGBTQ and HIV+ communities. Please share with anyone you know who might be interested in contributing! For your ease, there is also a Facebook event for it. Details below. Thanks for stopping by!

WHAT: A music compilation to be digitally released by Trimming the Shield RecordsHOW: Submit an original (previously unreleased) piece of musicWHY: Participate in the resistance by pursuing your own happinessWHEN: Submissions are open from February 23 to April 23, 2017

Let's be radically resistant. Let's be happy and purposeful and loud together. Happiness is not pretend, escape, or denial. It is our right - even amidst this time of turmoil, anger, and confusion. We are still allowed to seek happiness in whatever way(s) we each define it. If you are interested, have questions, doubts, excitement, or cheer, send to: trimmingtheshieldrecords@gmail.com. More details about how to participate will be announced in coming weeks.

THANK YOU.

"Hope will never be silent."-Harvey Milk

"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."-Helen Keller

What a year for music this has been! Friendship Commanders released our debut full-length, DAVE, as well as music videos for "Animals of Pride" and "NMA." Check them out if you haven't already! Then, just this past Friday, October 21, we released our fourth annual Halloween single. This year, we covered a lesser known band, Iodine. Iodine were active in the Nashville rock scene in the 1990s, but never quite got the attention they deserved. "Swan Dive" is the opening track to their second (and last) album, Baby Grand. Friendship Commanders have added it to our roster of Halloween covers to raise awareness around addiction as well as money for MusiCares, a wonderful organization which advocates for the well-being of musicians. Money will be donated in memory of Chris Feinstein, bassist for Iodine. The Nashville scene did a nice piece about the FC cover; be sure to read it.

I'm so happy to share this work with you all. This is the first music video by my band, Friendship Commanders. We made it ourselves using only our phones. It was shot in three cemeteries in Nashville and two in Franklin TN. We hope you enjoy it! If you'd like to keep up with what we're doing, I've added links below.